Ocean, nature, critters, and recreation

Nov 01, 2018

A commercial fisherman was caught on video jumping into the water and clambering onto the back of an entangled humpback whale in an attempt to free the mammal.

The fisherman emerges triumphant at the end of the video clip, claiming to have cut a blue line that had been wrapped around the whale. But the man and the fishing crew have been criticized for acting recklessly and placing the man’s life at risk.

The incident occurred late last month off Morro Bay on the Central California coast, but video did not begin to circulate until Wednesday.

The criticism stems from the fact that whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Harassing them, even with good intentions, is against the law.

Because whales are powerful and unpredictable, rescues should only be attempted by NOAA-trained and authorized disentanglement teams.

“We’ve had people die trying to get in the water, and just last year we lost one of our first responders,” Justin Viezbicke, a disentanglement expert with NOAA Fisheries, told KSBY. “There’s a common misconception that distressed marine animals will die within hours.

“Even though it seems like it’s a very stressful situation, we usually have days, weeks, sometimes even months to find these animals and get this gear off.”

The men involved in the apparent rescue are eel fishermen from the vessel F/V Persistence. Nicholas Taron, the videographer, said the group had contacted the Coast Guard but was told the agency could not help.

Taron stated on Instagram: “We followed the entangled humpback whale around for an hour. Cut an entangled buoy from her back but she was still caught. With no other options F/V Persistence getting the job done.”

In the video, a fisherman named Sam is urged by Taron to jump as the vessel is alongside the whale, which is clearly scarred and entangled. “Jump on the whale right now and cut it!” Taron barks.

Sam jumps over the whale and viewers can hear its trumpet blow. These are sounds humpback whales sometimes make when they’re agitated.

During the next several seconds Sam makes it onto the back of the whale, near the head area, and is thrown off when the whale performs a violent tail throw before diving.

With his arms raised, knife held firmly in his mouth, Sam implies that he was successful. However, it’s not clear in the footage how much of the line had been cut or removed.

Boaters who encounter entangled whales are asked to take photos and radio the Coast Guard, and to call the NOAA Entangled Whale Hotline at 877-767-9425.

Oct 16, 2018

A Colorado hiker caught in an avalanche Monday was swept over cliffs and carried 150 feet down the slope, but dug out and drove himself to a hospital.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center published a description of the incident near South Arapaho Peak, stating that the unidentified hiker had suffered a broken pelvis.

“The avy season hit me by surprise today,” the hiker is quoted as saying.

The CAIC's description:

“A hiker left from the 4th of July trail head. He hiked up the Arapaho Pass and Arapaho Glacier Trails to about 11,500 feet. At that elevation recent snow became too deep to make progress and he decided to descend.

To avoid deeper drifts of snow, the hiker moved off trail and descended down a rocky, convex slope. At about 10:30 the hiker postholed through about four feet of drifted snow. He watched the avalanche fracture above and to the east of him. The majority of the avalanche ran through a gully to the east of the hiker.

“The avalanche swept him over several cliffs 10 to 15 feet high. He was carried about 150 vertical feet and injured. He hiked out and drove himself to a hospital and said he suffered "cuts, bruises, and a fractured pelvis. The hiker described the maximum crown depth as three to four feet. The slab was drifted snow from a storm on October 14, and the bed surface from an earlier storm.”

The accompanying image shows where the hiker became caught in the avalanche (green circle) and where the hiker ended up (red X). Most of the debris flow was in the gully to the right of the red line.

Oct 05, 2018

Humpback whales will sometimes breach, or leap, placing their immense size and incredible power on broad display. And when Mother Nature provides a rainbow as a backdrop, such an awesome act appears all the more magical.

The accompanying footage, showing a humpback whale spinning during its breach, was captured Wednesday in California’s Monterey Bay by Cheré Tamura from aboard the the Blackfin out of Monterey Bay Whale Watch.

“Not only did we have Orcas/Killer Whales breaching, we had this magnificent creature who breached in front of a rainbow and right next to our boat!” the company stated on Facebook. “Simply amazing! It has to stand all by itself!”

Sep 26, 2018

A report of shots being fired in Yellowstone National Park prompted an investigation that turned up spent shotgun shells, but not the identity of the shooter.

The investigation began Sunday after somebody reported that a man had shot at wolves as they chased his dog in the Sedge Bay area near the East Entrance Road.

According to a news release issued Wednesday, rangers searched the area and found no evidence that wolves were injured.

Investigators are hoping that somebody can identify the man. Discharging firearms in Yellowstone is illegal, and dogs must be leashed or kept in the car. Pets of any kind are not allowed on hiking trails or boardwalks.

The park asks that anyone with information about the incident telephone its tip line at 307-344-2132.

Kayakers were having the times of their lives off New Zealand this week when one of them was interrupted by a clammy slap to the face, courtesy of a brazen fur sea clutching a large octopus in its jaws.

The accompanying footage, captured byTaiyo Masuda off Kaikoura, on New Zealand’s South Island, shows the male New Zealand fur seal break the surface and fling the octopus against a paddler identified by Yahoo 7 News as Kyle Mulinder.

Viewers will note by the kayakers’ reactions that this became the day’s highlight.

Not so for the octopus. Seals sometimes violently shake their prey to tear it into pieces, and in this case the kayaker just happened to be almost precisely where this occurred.

“He thrashed it in mid-fight and my face happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mulinder said.

Wrote Masuda in the YouTube description: “Right around lunchtime, several seals started to swim around, we just thought they were refreshing their body, yet apparently they were seeking more of food.

“One seal swims right next to us, having an octopus in his mouth, pops right up of the surface next to us, then tries to chew up the leg but ended up slapping our face!

“Such a raw moment, brought us so much laugh to all of us all day long… What a day to remember!”

Sep 21, 2018

A rare white dolphin has captured the hearts of marine mammal enthusiasts in California’s Monterey Bay, where the striking mammal has been spotted at least twice within the past week.

The juvenile Risso’s dolphin, almost certainly an albino, was documented via Monterey Bay Whale Watch drone-cam Thursday as it stood out among other dolphins with typical gray coloration and scarring. (Pardon the ominous-sounding music.)

“This albino juvenile Risso’s dolphin has rarely been seen in Monterey,” the whale-watching company stated on Facebook. “Today, we had great looks at it and from the drone’s perspective you can see the other Risso’s swimming next to it with ‘normal’ dark gray color and scars from squid and teeth [from other Risso’s dolphins].”

On September 14, the same dolphin was photographed by Kate Cummings of Blue Ocean Whale Watch, among others. The white mammal was among hundreds of other Risso’s dolphins. Blue Ocean also logged sightings on Thursday.

The dolphin, which has earned the nickname Casper, was first photo-identified as a calf in 2014, swimming alongside its presumed mother. The mammal was spotted again in 2015, and last year. It might be the only all-white Risso’s dolphin documented around the world. (Some white-colored marine mammals are leucistic, caused by the absence of some pigment. Albinos are all white with pink-colored eyes.)

Risso’s dolphins are unique in their appearance, featuring bulbous heads, large dorsal fins and gray, scarred bodies. They inhabit tropical and temperate waters around the world.

“These 3 whales were very peaceful beside us, after swimming/drifting over to us. Perhaps inspired by other whale(s) breaching not far away, that we could hear hitting the water, they 'decided' to go for it,” stated Capt. Tom Goodwin on Facebook. “Very classic takeoff and you can hear me say it three times, 'It's going to be a triple breach!' "

Three successive breaches, each spectacular in its own right, and of course the requisite cheers.

The passengers might be spoiled for life, because it rarely gets better than this.

Aug 14, 2018

When Téa Megill learned during a trip to the Honolulu Zoo last summer that elephants may be headed toward extinction, the 10-year-old wanted to help.

She opened a neighborhood lemonade stand to raise money for the fight against poaching in Africa, in what at first seemed merely an admirable gesture.

But it has become much more than a gesture. The Honolulu sixth-grader has since been allowed to move her stand inside the zoo, where she also sells homemade bracelets and other items to conservation-minded visitors.

“We’re very proud of her,” Sejal Megill, Téa’s mother, told BNQT Outdoors. “We thought this going to be a summer project, but her drive and motivation have carried it so much farther. She would fundraise every day if she could.”

Téa has a website, Elephant.Ade, that operates under the slogan, “Aloha for the Elephants.” She runs the stand at the zoo’s Elephant Habitat each Wednesday afternoon. Products on the website are sold around the world.

"My goal is $1 million for the elephants and that they could be saved," Téa told Hawaii’s KHON 2.

Africa’s elephants, to be sure, need help.

The Elephant Crisis Fund, part of the the Wildlife Conservation Network, states on its website that wild elephants could be wiped out within a generation.

More than 30,000 elephants are killed annually for their ivory tusks, which support a lucrative black-market industry. Meanwhile, an exhaustive effort involving multiple partners is combating poaching and trafficking.

Téa, a budding conservationist, can boast that she’s part of this effort.

At the zoo, she told KHON 2, she helps to raise awareness.

“I'll start walking down that path or this path and I'll start giving them brochures and talking to them about what's going on with the elephants,” she said. “And then if they decide to come up, then we just explain what we're selling and stuff.”

Téa recently told The Eden Edition that someday she’d like to visit Africa and see the wild elephants.

Wrote Shelby Eden, “With the determination of a young Jane Goodall, I have a feeling all of Téa’s dreams will undoubtedly come true.”

Jul 19, 2018

Fishing became secondary for a group of Southern California anglers Thursday after they encountered a massive great white shark feeding on a gray whale carcass.

The accompanying footage, captured near the San Clemente Pier, shows the scarred predator swimming just off the stern of the 23-foot fishing boat, and moments later sinking its teeth into the whale.

(It’s not known how the whale died, but whale carcasses often attract sharks.)

The anglers were part of an AllWater Charters expedition out of Dana Point. Allwater posted the video on Instagram and Marc Levine, the company’s owner, shared the footage on Facebook. The shark was estimated to have measured 17 to 19 feet, according to the Orange County Register.

“So awesome and crazy to see a massive great white like this around here,” Marc Girardeau, an Orange County photographer, wrote in the Facebook comments section.

A red lifeguard boat also appears in the footage. Lifeguards planned to tow the whale carcass farther offshore, so it does not wash onto the beach.

The encounter occurred less than a mile from shore. By towing the carcass out to sea, it was hoped that the shark would be drawn farther from swimmers and surfers along the coast.

–Images showing the great white shark near the boat and feeding on the whale carcass are video screen grabs